Process of producing and seasoning hydrated lime



' o. R. Bone. 5R

PROCESS OI PRODUCING AND SSASQIIIIG HYDRATBD LI 11154 Sept. 21, 192: 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 \zzaaazvasn.

Oct. 13, 19215.

. D. R. sous, sa

FIOCISS 01', PRODUCING AND. SEASOHIIIG HYDRATED 14''! Filed Sept. 21, 1923 2 Shoots-Shoot 2 gwbc'nioz, .ZZRBUNEER Patented 1 3,

UNITED STATES 1,55 ,670- 'Y'PATENT OFFICE- navro a 301m, 82., or corner, rnxas.

- 2 or rnonucme m snesoiwnre mum Application nee September 21 192:. Serial as. 864,069.

To all whom it may concern:

- Be it known that I, DAVID R. BONE, Sn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oglesby, in the county of Coryell and State of Texas, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements "in Processes of the form of lime-kiln shown in my Patefit No. 1281902,- patented October 15th, 1918,

and to employ the dipping or wetting device shown in my Patent No. 1469209.

'In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Fig. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic and perspective view showing one form of apparatus or combina-I 'tion of devices which may be employed in carrying out the process. Fig. 2 is a sectional detail view, the section being taken in a plane vertically and long1tu-' d nally an approximately through the center of the concrete storage and seasoning bin. Fig. 3 is a view showing, in top plan and lateral section, a form of grate or screen bottom for use in the cars which carry the burned lime, immerse it in the dipping vat or' tank, then hold it in compressed bulk while it is being disintegrated, or while its hydration completed after being,

dipped or wetted. o reiterate briefly the constructiog'and 0 ration of the lime kiln of my Patents 0s. ,1281902 and 1469209. The lime-kiln includes the chamber 1 which receives the lime and is provided with doors or inlets 2 and a chimney 3. The doors 2 communicate with furnaces 4, on opposlte sides of A the kiln-chamber 1, and each furnace 4 is provided with a grate 5, a door 6 and one or more rotary stokers 7 Under each grate zipper end is a hopper 9 thatthe es and cinders at fall through the grate. The bottoms of the chutes terminate in boxes 10 which have doors 11 through whichqthe ashes can be removed. These boxes have grate bars 12 on which fuel canbe placed through doors 13. The heat from the boxes 10 passes up the chutes 8 and assists in effecting com lete combustion in the furnaces 4, so as to e imi nate black smoke (or greatly reduce the carbon) from the roducts of'combustion that ass through t e doors 2 into the kilncham Gates 24 may be closed to cut ofl communication between the furnaces 4: and. boxes'10, and gates 25 may be closed to out off communication between the furnaces 4 and. the kiln-chamber.

The bottom of the kiln-chamber is in the form of a funnel or hopper 26 and has a gate 26 which can be opened to let the hot newly kilned lime lumps or unslaked and undivided burnt limestone into cars 27 which have screen or grate bottoms, one form of which is shown in Fig. 3. I The cars travel on railway tracks 30, .31, 32 and 33- w ich are connected by switches the same as in my Patent -N o. 1,469,209 except that I here add the switch that connects the track 33 to the track 30. This track 30 included a movable section which forms part of a lift or car-lowering and raising device 30" which has under 'itla vat or water tank 30".

All the foregoing, except the. cars screen bottoms and the track 33 (including its switch) relates to matter shown in my previous patents above mentioned; and, referring now to Fig. 3, itwill be seen that a strong and practical bottom of'this kind may be formed of flat bars of iron disposed vertically edgewise'. The cross bars 28 may be notched so asto provide spacers between thexnotches, and the longitudinal bars 29 may be seated in these notches and by electric we] or other appro rlate means; or, a screen om of this km may be cast integrally and then annealed. The advantages of a screen bottom are to permit water- (from the water-tank 30'') to r186- info contact with' -'the lower part of the bulk of lime, in the. car, while the-upper part of the bulk is being wetted by'the water that flowsover the top of the car, thus very quickly wetting all of'the lumps of lime in the bulk,'not onlysaviughzime of the operator, but-also starting hydration substantially simultaneously for all of 41110 lumps of the bulk, thus naming the maxi the hydration is complete. Any appropriate water-gage may be employed in the watertank for measuring the water before and after each car-load of lime is dipped or immersed, thus gaging the quantity of water taken up by each load or bulk of lime. In practice, the cars are filled only about onethird full of the lime-lumps, and when the hydration is complete the cars are substantially full, owing to the expansion of the bulk in'hydrating. The sides and ends of the cars are imperforate, so that the atmosphere is excluded to a very considerable extent, and the gages are preserved in the bulk of lime, especially in view of the lime becoming more and more compact as it tends to expand and is restricted by the sides and ends of the cars. The lime is thus kept in bulk in the cars on the siding 31 about twenty-four hours which is usually the time required for the hydration to be completed, enough cars being provided, and a sufliciently long siding 31, for continuing the process without having to wait for the completion of the hydration in any one of the cars. The tracks 31 and 32 are connected by a switch (shown in my Patent 1,469,209, but not shown here), and the cars of hydrated lime can be switched first to the track 32 and then to the track 30 where it joins the track 33.

The track 33 terminates in a combined car-lift and tipple of any appropriate kind which is shown at 34. It is provided with a separating screen 35 from which the lumps or cores may fall into a conveyer trough 36 and be carried away by a screw conveyer 37 The hydrated lime-powder falls into a storage and seasoning bin 38 of large capacity, preferably holding about 100 tons. This bin may be of any preferred shape, construction and material, but is here shown relatively long and narrow so that its contents can-be shifted by a single screw-conveyer 39 such as shown in Fi 2. This conveyor is at the bottom of the %)in, so that the lime first deposited therein is the first to be shifted by the screw-conveyer'to the farther end of the bin. from the tipple atrthe bins receiving end. Therefore, the best seasoned or cured lime is removed first (by means presently described) while the later receiptsof lime in the bin have time to cure or season before being removed.

In the discharge end of the bin 38 is an One means, as here shown,

endlesschain-and-bucket elevator, its shaft 40 being hollow and having an inlet 41 and an outlet end 42. The buckets of its endless belt or chain are shown at 43 (Fig. 2). Its endless belt or chain is operated by a shaft 44, sprocket 45, chain 46, second sprocket 47 (Fig. 2), second shaft 48, bevel gear wheel 49, second bevel gear wheel 50, main driving shaft 51, and main driving wheel 52 which may be operated by an engine motor or other source of power. This drivlng shaft may be geared with the stokers 7 in any appropriate way or by any appropriate means so as to operate the stokers. It is also operatively connected to a fan 53 through the medium of a belt 54 which runs on the fans pulley and on a pulley 55 of the main shaft. The fan communicates with the outlet 42 through a tubular connection 56, and its outlet end communicates witha centrifugal separator 57 through a tubular connection 58.

The fan separates the lime into its indivisible grains orparticles and mixes them with the air which passes therewith into the centrifugal separator in which the centrifugal force carries the heavier particles against the wall of the separator, out of the main air current, so that they (the heavier particles) pass by gravity through an outlet tube 59 into a receiving chamber 60. The

finer particles pass with the air through a tubular connection 61 into a second centrifugal separator in which the greater part of the lime is separated from the air and passes down through an outlet 63 into a receiving chamber 64. The air anda residual extremely fine lime powder passes thence through a tubular connection 65 into a cloth receiver or air-separator or dust collector 66. This may be composed of any appropriate cloth stretched on a cubical open-sided frame, so that the air can escape through the meshes of the cloth, but the dust remains on the inner surface of the cloth and will collect in volume, and finally its weight will cause it to fall. It is caught in a receiving chamber 67 from which it may be withdrawn to supply a demand for such exceedingly fine lime-powder. If the accumulation of of the dust collector gets rather thick before falling, it retards the escape of air and les sens the efiiciency of the apparatus; so I may provide van appropriate means for shaking the cloth so as to accelerate the falling of the accumulation of lime dust. may consist of; an arm 68 secured to the dust collector, and an arm 69 secured to the shaft 51. As the shaft 51 rotates, its arm repeatedly strikes the arm 68, and the latter causes the cloth to yield so as to let the arm 69 pass-the arm 68 after striking the latter. 4

A bagging machine of any appropriate lime on the inner surface kind (not shown) maybe used instead of or inconnection with the receivin chambers 60, 64 and 67 or any one of t em; or the different grades of lime may be removed from these receptacles by any appropriate means; i

Referring now to Fig. 2, it will be seen that the conveyer 39 may be driven by the main shaft 51, through the medium of the gear wheels 49 and 50, the shaft 48, a pair ofbevel gears 70, a shaft 71, and a pair of bevel gears 72. v r

While I have shown and described a combination of devices cooperating in a particular way, viz., through the main shaft 51, the railway tracks and other conveying means, it is not intended to limit this invention to these specific operating and conveying means, nor to the specific forms of de-" vices here shown; for the process-may be carried into effect by other means or other arrangements of devices; for instance, I

I may either (as a modification) dispense with the elevator 3 1- and incline the track 30 so as to dump the hydrated lime into the screening separator 35 or I may entirely eliminate the elements 34, 35, 36 and 37 and dump the lime (cores and all) intothe bin 38'; in which case, I could provide a screening separator between the outlet 42 and the inlet 56 of the ,Ian 53. In thisor any other form of operating mechanism, it is within the scope of the invention to provide clutches and speed-controlling devices wherever applicable and advantageous.

Any appropriate changes may be made within the scope of the inventive ideas, as. im lied and claimed.

ome of the advantages of these improvements are as follows: (First)-The process begins in the improved combination of kiln and furnaces shown and claimed in my above mentioned patents, so that the lime is free from discoloration "of ,smoke and other impurities, and in which over-burning and underburning are avoided. (Second)--By taking the lime direct from the\kiln while most of the kilning heat is in the unbroken stones or lime-lumps and immediately im-' mersing these hot unbroken lumps in water, this makes itimpossible for the air to have any detrimental efiect on the lime. (Third)The cars each having open top, screen bottom and imperforate sides and ends or walls, this permits wetting of the hot lumps of lime by water flowing both upward and downward in the cars, so allparts of the bulk of lime (in the respective cars) are thoroughly and quickly wetted and permitted to absorb suflicient water to complet the hydration after the surplus water is drained'out through the screen bottom and remains in the water-tank. By thus ofi the-surplus water, I avoid such to be dried by evaporation and thus lose a I -valuable.quantity of a certain chemical element of the lime. By having only the unbroken or original size lumps of lime in each car, this provides ample spaces and. passages between the lumps for permitting quick access of the water to all surfaces of the lime lumps, so that an absorption of the water is not difiicult or retarded, in contradistinctlon to the processes wherein the lime lumps are crushed into small pellets. By measuring the depth of water in the after immersing a car and its content of lime,"then raising the car when the depth has decreased to a predetermined proper extent, this allows the proper amount of water (and no more) to be absorbed by the lime. (Fourth)By providing the siding 31 and the siiflicient number of cars to remain on this siding with their contents of lime in which the hydration is completed after wetting of the lime, this not only saves time, b permitting the burning, wetting and ot er steps to' continually proceed; but also produces the best quality of hydrated lime, by the imperforate walls of dipping vat or water-tank immediately the cars and the compressed bulks of lime excluding air from the interior of the bulks, also retaining the gases within the bulks. (F1fth)After hydration is completed, all

the imburned cores, being uncrushed, are

a demand for a comparatively cheap hme,

as for agricultural purposes. The cores can be burned over with the raw lime stone.

The bin 38 may be provided with a cover of any appropriate kind (not shown) for protecting the lime from atmospheric draughts during its seasoning period. I

This process can 'be carried out with ,a

burned lime small amount of labor, because all the devices are or may be power-operated.

This process, in its broadest form, isin successful 0 nation, by the applicant, in the Lone tar Lime Works, at Oglesby, Texas.

What I claim as my invention is:- v

1. The process of hydrating lime, comprising placing lump-lime in a screen-bottom car, dipping the car in water, and

drainmg the excess water from the lumplime through the screen-bottom of the car.

2. The process of hydrating lime, comprising placing lump-lime in a. screen-bottom car while the lime is hot from the kiln, dipping the car and its content of hot lump lime in water, and raising the car and its content of lump-lime from the water and permitting the excess of Water to drain through the screen-bottom of the car.

3. The process of hydrating lime, comprising placing lump-lime in a screen-bottom car, dipping the car and its content of lump-lime in water, raising the car and its content of lump-lime from the water and permitting the excess water to drain from the lump-lime through the screen-bottom of the car, and placing the lime in a curing bin after the lump-lime has disintegrated in the screen-bottom car.

4. The process of hydrating lime, comprising plaeing hot lump-lime in a screenbottom car, dipping the car and its content of lump-lime into a. body of water, removing the car from the body of water and per mitting the excess Water to drain from the lump-lime, keeping the content of lime confined in the car until the lump-lime has disintegrated in consequence of the water absorbed thereby, and placing the disintegrated lime in a curing bin- In testimony whereof, I affix my signature. v

DAVID R. BONE, SR. 

